Payment of the first pile of fruit storage facility Migrant Workers Complex De Sikkert Soft Fruit

Tholen – Last Friday, Mats and Liz, children of fruit grower Art van Wijk – known in Petwe as De Sickert in Augen – drove the first mound of a new sorting and packing place, including the migrant worker complex. The property will have an area of ​​1,200 square meters on two floors and will have a ULO storage facility where 150 tons of red currants can be stored.

While the red currant market has been hit hard by the Corona pandemic, De Sikkert believes that the situation has only expanded sales in the long run. “In the first Corona year, we had to look for new sales markets, but in the end we were able to make more sales within the retail sector. For lower prices than we used to before, but we can still sell large quantities of red products at the sale level Retail. The missing berries.”

“There is a great deal involved in providing retail. Everything has to be weighed, covered and labeled for each container. We didn’t have room for that, because we were already out of our jacket. That’s why this new build was necessary. We are working on our own packaging which is 100% paper At this new location we have plenty of room to start,” says Art, who grows red raspberries on 15 hectares and on 5 hectares of black raspberries with an annual production of 225.00 kg red currants and 175.000 kg black raspberries.

“Retail is asking us to grow 5MRL-berries. This is a big challenge, but it also provides us with opportunities. We are increasing sales opportunities for our company. Meanwhile, there comes a time, somewhere in February, when the quality of 5MRL-berries is very poor. That’s why The reason I’m struggling is that we don’t stop too much in the trade and that we put a cap on 5MRL around February 1. This way we avoid disappointments, which have a negative impact on repeat purchases.”

“The plan is to have the site ready on July 1, before the red berry picking season begins. We will build a residence for migrants on the second floor in October when the harvest season ends and it will be ready by January 1, 2023,” says El-Sayed. . kind.

“We created this immigrant housing for the employees who work with us all year round. We have 16 rooms at our disposal and because we work with couples, we can accommodate 32 people. We do not need this space yet, but it means that we are preparing for the future and providing our employees with decent housing. By the way, in Our prime times work for 100 people, so the goal is to accommodate them in one place in the future.

The fruit grower has been a member of Veiling Zaltbommel for two years and De Sikkert loves this collaboration. “I have one-on-one contact with clients who buy at Veiling Zaltbommel. We work at weekly or monthly rates, so I know in advance what my fruits will come from. This gives some certainty, but above all a lot of confidence in each other.” Greetings to Jeroen van de Beek and Joletta Bok for the way they handled sales. Customers come here to download directly so we relieve them of their worries to deliver the retail ready product.”

for more information:
Soft Fruit De Sikkert
119
4184 AD refined
Mob: 06-41271690
[email protected]

Zaltbommel auction
Giulietta Book: +31 6 10486173
Jeroen Van Beek: +31 6 13330698